The [Dis] Influencer- One Year Anniversary

[the.dreamfinder]

Troy's a senior executive in the ranks at the Disneyland Resort who, along with Zenia Mucha and Bob Iger, orchestrated a ghost writing campaign using Al Lutz as a puppet to dupe Disney fandom and help overthrow Eisner and get Iger the CEO spot.

I wouldn’t exactly call him a senior executive, but he did have white collar jobs at TDA and I believe Burbank as well. Troy was more of an agent for Zenia than an orchestrator.

Also, Troy left the company in January of 2019 under mysterious circumstances.

 

[Rickster7]

Are Spirit and his German girlfriend living happily ever after?

 

[Phroobar]

Are Spirit and his German girlfriend living happily ever after?

You mean the one that he has no picture of but writes letters to ever weekend?

 

[tirian]

Are Spirit and his German girlfriend living happily ever after?

He’s clearly still lurking.

I just want to see @WDW1974 post again because regardless of whether people liked his personality, he knew a lot about the Eisner era and the early days of Iger, which is the last time Disney was a truly interesting company and not a faceless conglomerate.

 

[Rickster7]

Is that really you Spirit? Give me another sign!

 

[the.dreamfinder]

Is that really you Spirit? Give me another sign!

 

[_caleb]

View attachment 492078

This much we already knew.

So, the @andysol Conjecture is, as I understand it, as follows:

1. @TP2000 and Micechat Overlords don't like the direction DL is going and would love to see Chapek (and likely the other Bob) gone. A feeling many share.

2. So, @TP2000 and Micechat Overlords have TP2000 recently write a hit piece secretly under the name of Al Lutz, a one-time 'influencer' and contributor to Micechat who was a player in the "Save Disney" movement to oust Eisner. Was it to get Chapek fired? Or to influence him to stop cutting stuff? We don't know. Were there others involved?... maybe... more below...

3. The Snyders, Michael and Gary (@WDW1974 and @the.dreamfinder) then write their own hit piece in response against @TP2000 and Micechat exposing @TP2000 as the Al Lutz ghostwriter.

4. Unbelievable you might think? Well the Snyders then outline not only the history of @TP2000 ghostwriting for Al Lutz, but that he's done it before as part of a plot to "Save Disney" and oust Eisner.

5. So, big deal, you might think. But the Snyders aren't done. They claim that it was Iger and his henchwoman Zenia Mucha who orchestrated it. How? Because the real Al Lutz was a pain in corporate's side as a constant gadfly. Gary says he gave the idea to George Kalogridis (then VP of Park, then Prez of Parks) to co-opt the messenger. By feeding Lutz info or even having someone (TP) write for him, since his health was failing, they can groom the persona of Al to their side to put the blame of everything bad that was happening on Eisner.

6. Why would the Snyders do this? It seems to be in their nature. They are the scorpion stinging the frog ferrying them across the river. They hate the current crop of Disney execs as much as TP and MC. For some reason, they hate TP and MC just as much. No "enemy of my enemy is my friend" here. Also, Gary gives himself credit for suggesting the whole immoral "subvert the influencer" tactic. That's right, if you hate the whole "Disney is manipulating the online community" thing, you can thank Spirit's brother for that.

7. If this is true, the funny thing is that @TP2000 posted here to alert people of his alter-ego article as Al Lutz; and, @the.dreamfinder did the same thing alerting folks here to his real life Gary Snyder article outing @TP2000. Oopsies.

What we don’t know is:

8. Left over questions: Did Bob/Zenia ever really direct the editorial hit job on Eisner? Is Bob/Zenia currently directing the finger-pointing at Chapek in case they need a fall-guy?

Well, and we also don’t know how many members posting here are part of a campaign of one sort or another.

 

[James Cameron in a sub]

And don't forget world famous director @James Cameron in a sub!

Yes, and don't forget that I have Avatar 2 out this year...next year...in 2 years! Here's a couple photos from the set.

 

[Curious Constance]

I wouldn’t exactly call him a senior executive, but he did have white collar jobs at TDA and I believe Burbank as well. Troy was more of an agent for Zenia than an orchestrator.

Also, Troy left the company in January of 2019 under mysterious circumstances.

It’s only mysterious if you don’t know what happened.
Some might say it’s mysterious how you won’t answer any questions regarding your involvement/interest in the article, but I’m sure there is a good reason for that too.

 

[Mac Tonight]

It’s only mysterious if you don’t know what happened.
Some might say it’s mysterious how you won’t answer any questions regarding your involvement/interest in the article, but I’m sure there is a good reason for that too.

Honestly, even though the dust has "settled" a year later... I still don't think we fully, 100% know what happened and who was responsible. It was one of those situations where the truth was probably buried somewhere in amongst the hearsay, but the people involved just laughed at it so much that the rest of us joined in... thereby preserving their secrets and letting it all blow over without any further scrutiny.

I mean... can anyone say it's just a coincidence that TP has mysteriously managed to not have any "conversations with the Neighbor Lady" since the article dropped?

 

[SuddenStorm]

Honestly, even though the dust has "settled" a year later... I still don't think we fully, 100% know what happened and who was responsible. It was one of those situations where the truth was probably buried somewhere in amongst the hearsay, but the people involved just laughed at it so much that the rest of us joined in... thereby preserving their secrets and letting it all blow over without any further scrutiny.

I mean... can anyone say it's just a coincidence that TP has mysteriously managed to not have any "conversations with the Neighbor Lady" since it article dropped?

TP has shared various other bits of info, each of which derived from non social distancing cocktail parties. My guess is he dropped the Neighbor Lady storytelling device in favor of his cocktail parties...

But here's what I've pieced together from last year. Photomatt came on here and abused his Micechat moderator privileges to confirm that the TP2000 handle on his site was indeed registered to a Troy Porter. I think that post was removed. He also continued to try to get TP to 'confess' on here, before removing posts and apologizing publicly after receiving new info from Dusty.

Al Lutz came out of retirement and according to various accounts denied any ghost writing claims.

The gentleman that wrote the tabloid expose was Dusty Sage's former spouse.

My guess? The whole piece was much ado about nothing.

 

[tirian]

I was late to the Disney fan site game, but I too used to look at MiceChat in the mid 2010s. I didn't read the forums but I looked at the weekly Dateline Disneyland photo reports and the occasional rumor drops. Once the photographer left (I can't even remember his name at this point) I stopped visiting shortly thereafter.

I chose to read that as a quote from Chapek, and it was hilarious.

 

[_caleb]

I'd be surprised if Disney had any people on here or Micechat boards that do anything more than lurk. The tone is too cynical and someone promoting the company would stand out like a sore thumb.

As for disliking Iger/Chapek, I don't think you would need a campaign for doing so, as any themepark fan already would have a poor opinion of them.

I've rarely seen a post anywhere praising these two.

Did you read Gary Snyder’s Medium article linked in the orignite post in this thread?

We’re not talking about official representatives of Disney, but people hired by someone within the Disney to test ideas, influence opinion, and even pressure change in different parts of the company. It’s more of a shadow PR campaign, where posting negative and cynical things about the parks/company can sway public opinion against what some Leaders in the company are trying to do.

 

[Mac Tonight]

TP has shared various other bits of info, each of which derived from non social distancing cocktail parties. My guess is he dropped the Neighbor Lady storytelling device in favor of his cocktail parties...

Yeah, you're probably right. Unless he was really neighbors with Zenia Mucha and then she moved away...

 

[_caleb]

TP has shared various other bits of info, each of which derived from non social distancing cocktail parties. My guess is he dropped the Neighbor Lady storytelling device in favor of his cocktail parties...

More like the Neighbor Lady dropped him... (Sorry, @TP2000).

 

[SuddenStorm]

Also worth adding that the park has been closed for months.. I'd hope the neighbor lady has more pressing issues than gossiping with TP

 

[Mac Tonight]

Also worth adding that the park has been closed for months.. I'd hope the neighbor lady has more pressing issues than gossiping with TP

Maybe she lost her job!

 

[tirian]

This much we already knew.


What we don’t know is:

Well, and we also don’t know how many members posting here are part of a campaign of one sort or another.

Penguin’s synopsis is accurate. I think we also need to add, this was years ago when Al Lutz really did have that much authority in the LA area, and corporations were afraid of Internet blogs. Look at how companies in 2020 are making major decisions to appease tiny, but vocal, Twitter accounts. Look at the Splash Mt. debacle based on a Change.org petition which had a fraction of the votes begging Disney to keep Splash as-is.

Yes, depending on the people in charge at the time, they absolutely do use Internet chatter to inform odd decisions.

 

[_caleb]

It’s only mysterious if you don’t know what happened.
Some might say it’s mysterious how you won’t answer any questions regarding your involvement/interest in the article, but I’m sure there is a good reason for that too.

Honestly, even though the dust has "settled" a year later... I still don't think we fully, 100% know what happened and who was responsible. It was one of those situations where the truth was probably buried somewhere in amongst the hearsay, but the people involved just laughed at it so much that the rest of us joined in... thereby preserving their secrets and letting it all blow over without any further scrutiny.

I mean... can anyone say it's just a coincidence that TP has mysteriously managed to not have any "conversations with the Neighbor Lady" since the article dropped?

I vote for a an entire thread devoted to Q&A with @TP2000, @the.dreamfinder, and @WDW1974 (and any of their alter egos) where they give “hotter/colder” answers to our theories about what really happened.

 

[_caleb]

Maybe she lost her job!

She didn’t.